Masteries

Offense:
9

Defense:
21

Utility:
0

Threats to Alistar with this build

If he dash to you? Kick him. If he does it again? Bump him! Oh he managed to use ult? Too bad, you can use your ult during his...
He can still run away from you easily, so don't except to get many kills. and try to give him an AA before using W or Q to destroy his shield. Just ruin his lane, make sure he don't farm to much and he'll be of no use in TF.

4

Zed

He harass you better in early. Let's give him that. But come on, your R is just perfect to counter his. And who play Zed toplane anyway?

6

Jax

You are some kind of special counter to him. If he want to jump and stun you, you can kick him back or bump him. It's not a reason to play pussy however as he'll outscale you in late. So harass with W, try to fight him, take advantage of your 6 which is better than his. But when he'll get 11 you should not try to fight him again.

7

Irelia

Hard Match up. But some good harass early on and a gank from the jungler will get her down. Kick that bitch if she use Hiten Style and stay away. You do better then Her in TF for the engage, but you'll need or someone else to engage or a good peel support so that your carry keep being protected.

7

Riven

That's an interesting MU! Based on skill mostly. Keep your spells don't use them for farm (except E) and kick her if she want to engage. Bump if she come back. At level 6 press R when she does. The help of the jungle will definitively make you win.

7

Gnar

Okay skill MU again. Engage him when he is Mini, he is sensible to burst like Quinn, but he'll get much more tanky and annoying and you are equals on usefulness during TF. If he is in Mega and he stun you with the W, wait the debut of the R animation and press R. If he directly use R to stun you, use R.

8

Quinn

This wont be funny, but not impossible. Quinn is weak against big burst, and that's what Alistar combo bring. But after that you can touch your cock because she'll E away. After 6 you should not die anymore, but it's not a reason to stop playing safe as you need a full combo to get her and if their jungler come you'll be screwed. Don't forget to call the SS she can gank hard your midlaner.

10

Darius

Oh darn. get under you turret, play pussy. As long as you don't feed him too much he may not be more usefull than you in TF. Just build tanking after RoA.

Introduction: who am I? and why Alistar?

Hi I'm Cocoperroquet in EUW, i'm not a great player but I feel that you don't have to be Diamand to be able to post a Guide, this is not based on theory moreover, Alistar is not realy a "main" to me but i've tried to play bim in many ways and I have quite a lot of game with it. (also with AD and Crits when Xaxus played it on LCS)

So why Alistar? And why in toplane? because he have a Malphite's ult every 8 seconds. And 70% of damage reduction during 7 seconds at level 6. He is a "broken" champion not because of his mechanics (his only broken mechanic, the W + AA was nerfed) but because of his ult and his strong engage. Alistar goes very well with a good AoE midlaner (Orianna) and, or and Assassin jungle that can pick up kill when ganking your lane.

Runes

Quints:
AP -> Basic, you will deal some decent damage in early with this.
MS -> Your build on Alistar will already give you a lot of AP so don't hesitate if you don't like to go slowly to take MS quints.
CDR -> It's good if you don't want to take Lucidity and you still want CDR, take full blue CDR with it.
AD -> So you're not very good at last hitting huh?

Red:
Hybrid Pen -> just very good. It give you a stronger early.
Magic Pen -> Still a decent choice but Hybrid is more worth if you compare what you loose to what you get.
Armor Pen -> No! No no no! You're AP alistar not AD, why would you take this?
AD -> So you're that bad at last hitting?

Yellow:
Armor -> Good choice, it help on early trade even against AP as you may tank the minions.
HP Flat -> An alternative, it may be a better choice than armor if they have a lot of AP or if you don't have MR glyphs.
HP/Lvl -> Still a good choice. But it will be hard against champions with strong early game.

Blue:
Magic Resist -> Take this if you're against an AP. I mean realy. No joke. You want to get insta kill?
CDR -> Just take HP in yellow to compensate your lack of MR and CDR in Quints and you don't need Lucidity anymore and you'll start the game with 20% CDR.
AP -> Wow. Mate. That's some pretty ballz that you have there. you should show them to the world.
AP/lvl -> Wow. Mate. Your ballz are so big it's getting disgusting. Huh. I think you'll puke.

This is good against an easy match-up, but you don't need those masteries to deal sick damage.

Items

The starter:

Actually you are quite free on your starter.

What I personnaly recommand is a starter that will help on mana regen because that's Alistar's big problem.

So go for Crystallin flask or Doran ring. But wheater you choose one or the other I always take a second Doran Ring (or a first if I started crystallin) because it make your early game so much better.

An other good starter could be the Doran Shield or (but this is not the one that I prefer) the boots and potions.

Rush RoA after that, it's an item that need to stack quickly to become worth so there is no reason to delay the moment it'll start stacking. If you want to have tons of damage take the blasting wand before the catalyst.

As soon as RoA has been bought, go for Boots, at least normal ones. Alistar is ****ing slow.

The Sheen is your major item. You might not have to even upgrade it if you want to go tanky as fast as possible. Just get it at wait to see how the game goes before choosing wheather you'll be going for the Gauntlet or the Lich Bane.

Try to complete you boots at that stage if you didn't had the occasion to do it already.

Spirit Visage is your last major item, it will realy buff your ability te regen HP with your heal. Moreover the CDR is very important to spam your combo.

Now come the realy important part, this is where you can make choice that'll realy impact the game.

The question you have to ask yourself is: More tanking or more damage? At this point I usualy go for Sunfire becuase it does both a little bit of damage and tanking. But if even under your ultimate you are getting raped then go for Randuin. And if you have huge ballz? Rabadon.

So now you have only one slot left and the game is going to probably end soon, enemy might have stacked MR and that's why it's time for the Void Staff.

Spells

There is no big deal here.

R>W>Q>E

Go for W in first if it's a ranged, but in any case it have a lower CD than Q so even against a melee you will deal more than with Q because you can spam it more.

Of course you want your Combo as soon as possible so take Q.

And the heal is good but very uneffective before a certain point of the game, yet you need to be able to use it because you can activate your sheen whit it.

W have a better scalling and maxing Q wont give you a better CC.

Moreover if you have problem to land the combo it would be better to max at least the spell that you can't miss.

So yeah you have there every reason to max W before Q.

A few words on the passiv: Awesome, unexcepted helping on last hitting.
That's some good ****, you don't even realize it. It deal base damage (quite low) but it has a AP ratio! Woohoo! So you can use your heal to had an AoDoT, and have an easier lane control. But it mean that by the way, Alistar push even when you don't want it.

In general he have a great wave clear but it's a little bit risky as you need to get into the wave and to use your Q.

Laning phase in short

Harass with W when your opponent want to last it (deny)

Keep Q for a combo when your jungle gank or to protect yourself from a gank

When diving use ult before using any spell as it will up your AD and by the way the power of the sheen. Don't dive alone if it's risky, wait for the jungler to make sure you'll have the damage needed to finish your opponent.

Don't heal near minions if you don't want to damage them with your passiv and heal yours with would be bad for a lane freezing.
Yeah in general Alistar push naturaly. Even if you don't want to. So you'll need wards.

In the realy early game your base damage on a combo are enough to make your opponent regretting messing with the bull. So try to get level 2 first.
After level 3 you have to start to play safer, to wait for the jungler.
Don't roam, stay, farm, rush RoA.
When RoA is completed you can start to play a little bit more on aggro and roaming.
When Sheen completed you can realy start to fight.

Teamfight in short

You can do 2 different jobs in Teamfight, but not both. Or you can choose to peel your carry, or you can choose to engage and aim at their carry.

Stick to their carry if you choose to engage, if you have one person to bump, it's their ADC or APC that had a bad positionning. Remember you can use W on a minion or on the frontlane if the target stand next to the carry to bump him next, which will have a pretty good surprise effect.

A flash Q W to bring their carry on your team (an Insec in short) is the best move you can realize with Alistar (low skillcap). But before doing so just think 5 seconds to who are you going to throw to your team and who is in the opponent team. Is there a Thresh? Don't do it he'll just have to throw a lantern. Don't "Insec" Amumu, Sejuani or any tank like that. Bad idea. Don't throw an assassin right next to you ADC.

If you choose to peel (Because let's say they have Riven Akali Kha'Zix, tons of assassin All-In compo) stay realy next to your carry so that if their carry jump on yours, you'll be able to bump him. Stay next to your carry until their assassin is dead. If you have enough AP your Heal might be able to save a life so don't hesitate and use it. Take the skillshot for him, same for the CC. Be a Wall. But that's more what Ali Support have to do, so if you play Ali top my advice would be to do the engage.

Having a sheen will help you to push and Alistar is quite kitable once his W and Q are on CD so don't try to chase.

Pros / Cons

Cons

Easy to kite once Q and W are down
If shutted down on lane, he wont be of a big use
Long CD and nothing to do if every spells are on CD
Forced push of the lane

Pros

A good burst
A good engage
Strong pushing power
Tanky as ****

The End

Leave a comment, tell me what you thought of my first guide.
I'm not english but I'll be glad to learn from my mistake so tell me if I made any grammar error.

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